Fishing around St Petersburg, Florida

[Pointer 78]

Since there are other posts requesting ideas around vacation time in Florida, I'll try my luck. The family and I will be renting a condo on St Petersburg Beach from July 5th to the 12th. Normally, all our vacations are fishing free because of the time I spend on the water. This year will be different. Anyone know how the surf fishing is in that area, what lures to use, piers to visit? I'm not interested in deep sea fishing.

 

[jbh3]

St. Pete Beach is a VERY nice area. I never surf fished when I was there, but have seen plenty of folks do that. We rented a bayside house down down there several years and fished of the dock. We've caught flounder, snook, reds, trout, mangrove snapper, etc. It's a blast! We mostly used live shrimp, either under a float or c-rigged. Have have also done well with the DOA shrimp imitations. There are several public piers there. Check out the ones in Pass-a-Grille Beach. There is one on the gulf side and a couple on the bay side. There is also a bait shop on Pass-a-Grille and also one on Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. Lots of nice eatin' places if you are doing C&R. It will be HOT. Have a great trip!

 

[SpurHunter]

I grew up in the County south of there. Awesome fishing everywhere you go. TONS of intercoastal waterway to fish for anything from specs (trout), reds, snook, flounder, snapper, grouper, up to sharks and tarpon. There is a fantastic pier which was the old Sunshine Skyway Bridge, before they built the new one. It extends a mile or more, and you drive right to your fishing spot, pretty cool. The bridge connects Manatee Co. to St. Petersburg, so your 10 mins from it! Of course, I would rent a boat, and hit the flats myself. I have not fished there for 5-6 years now, but I bet if you get with Dhaun since he was just red and trout fishing, he can tell you the best bait options are I am sure. Live shrimp, free-lined is my all-time favorite way to catch most any fish down there. I like light tackle and light line...you loose alot of big fish, but I love it. Hope you have a ball, take lots of pics!

 

[3CRAZY2KHM3R]

in my opinion the north and south skyway peirs they hold many fish but i think now they have some macks schoolin around alone wit some grouper and hardtails but try ur luck a lil shrimp on some sabiki rigs and u'll have fun but if u want some of those big boys catch some pogies and a 8/0 circle hook and drop it all the way to the bottom and hold on the groupers have dat power to pull ur rod over the rail .. tight lines 3crazy

 

[BassmanIU]

check out www.floridasurffishing.com

they've never steered me wrong!